Re: [SM-PLUGINS] How to install the Archive Plugin?

[Michael A. P. I. <sha...@gm...>]

On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:02:54 -0500, Vanilla666 <ama...@un...>  
wrote:

>
> Okay, I am totally new to this. I use Windows XP and use SquirrelMail in  
> my
> Firefox Browser. Well, I use it for work and I would like to archive the
> mails so I won't lose any important information, just in case.
>
> I googled and found this:
> http://squirrelmail.org/plugin_view.php?id=121
>
> I downloaded archive_mail.1.2-1.4.2.tar.gz,

[...]

An alternative:

(Don't let the wordiness scare you. The actual process when you do the  
follow is quick and simple.)

Setup the IMAP account in Opera's built-in mail client by going to "Menu  
(Opera button in top left corner) -> Mail and Chat accounts -> add". You'd  
use the same username (or email address) and password you use to login to  
SquirrelMail. You'll need to know the settings for the IMAP server though.  
The port is usually 993 + TLS. But, it could be port 143 with TLS checked  
(for StartTLS) or port 143 with TLS unchecked. Authentication should be  
set to "Auto". You'll still need to know the server name though. It could  
be localserver.com, mail.localserver.com or imap.localserver.com for  
example. If you don't know the server name, you could ask the settings  
needed to connect via Thunderbird. You can then use those for Opera.

Then, if you manage to setup the IMAP account in Opera and fetch your  
mail, you can right-click any view and choose "export" to export the shown  
messages in that view to an mbox file. You can also create a label in the  
"Labels" access point, drag the messages you want to it and then just  
export that label to an mbox file. See  
<http://my.opera.com/operawiki/forums/topic.dml?id=1158492> for more info.

Note that when exporting, if Opera says that it needs to fetch bodies for  
the messages it wants to export, tell it to. Then, try the export again.

Or, you can go into the account's properties and on the incoming tab, set  
"make all messages available offline". Then, in Opera's mail directory  
(see <opera:about>), there's a store folder. In it is a folder for each  
account that stores all the messages for the account as mbox files. Just  
close down Opera and copy the folder to a safe place so that they're  
backed up.

If you want to archive the messages (as in, have them locally, but remove  
them from the IMAP server), see  
<http://my.opera.com/operawiki/forums/topic.dml?id=1130132>.

To get Opera, download it from <http://www.opera.com/browser/>. Click  
"options" in the installer, set the install path to a folder in your  
userprofile space like "C:\users\user\My Program Files\Opera" and set  
"install for" to "standalone installation". That way, it won't write any  
registry settings or interfere with your default browser etc.

Now, the reason to use a local mail client to fetch/archive all the  
messages is that the SquirrelMail archive plug-in doesn't work well as it  
runs out of allowed memory when exporting lots of messages. This means  
that the archive plug-in is likely useless for you unless you run your own  
server locally with your own PHP environment and your own SquirrelMail  
where you can configure the amount of memory PHP can use etc.

Now, for the mbox files you created, if your mail ever gets wiped from the  
IMAP server, you can import those mbox files and drag the messages to the  
IMAP account to reupload them. See  
<http://my.opera.com/operawiki/forums/topic.dml?id=1133042> for more info.

If you have any questions about Opera's built-in mail client (where you  
need complete step-by-step directions for setting up an account), you can  
ask at <http://my.opera.com/community/forums/forum.dml?id=32>.

Hope that helps.

-- 
Michael